THE FRAUDS IN KANSAS ILLUSTRATED. 

F 685 

c ll 3 v \ • SPEECH 



OF 






/ 



HON. FREDERICK P. STANTON, 

LATE ACTING GOVERNOR OF KANSAS, 

AT THE 

Chinese Assembly Rooms, New York, 

FEBRUARY 17, 1858. 



Mb. President and Gentlemen : 

The admission of a new State into this 
Confederacy, the advent of another heir to par- 
ticipate in the enjoyment of that inheritance of 
Liberty which belongs to this glorious Union, is 
under all circumstances an important event. 
But in the animation which pervades this large 
assemblage of the people of New York, an an- 
imation which has evidently not been produced 
by the employment of mere party machinery, I 
see something more than that excitement which 
usually attends such an occurrence in the history 
of our Republic. More than one-third of a cen- 
tury ago, a similar event produced a similar 
intense excitement, extending to the very extrem- 
ities of this Confederacy. In the central parts 
of the continent, in Missouri and Kansas, there 
seems to reside some influence, powerful for good 
or for evil, upon the destinies of the Republic. 
It remains to be seen, and but a short period will 
be necessary to determine whether this power 
consists of that attractive force which will bind 
the Union together in perpetual harmony, or 
whether it is to be of that volcanic and explosive 
nature which will rend it into fragments and 
destroy it forever. In my humble judgment, it 
will prove to be one or the other ef these, ac- 
cording as truth and justice and honor shall, 
prevail, or as falsehood, wrong, and fraud, should 
triumph in the great act of admission. [Cheer- 
ing-] 

I came to-night, my fellow-countrymen, at the 
invitation of your friends, for the purpose of pre- 
senting to you the reasons which, in my judg- 
ment, ought to prevent the acceptance of the 
Lecompton Constitution as the fundamental law 
of the State of Kansas — to prevent the imposition 
of that Government upon the people of Kansas, 
who have deliberately rejected it. In order to do 
this, it will be necessary for me to give yon a 
plain, unvarnished statement of facts which are 
within my knowledge, and which are a part of 
ray experience during the period of my service 
in that distant Territory. 



Mr. President you have truly said to the people 
here assembled, that it was not at my solicitation 
that I took the position which I occupied during 
the greater part of the last year. I had no am- 
bition to launch my unpretending bark upon the 
troubled waters of Kansas, and nothing was 
further from my expectation one week before I 
found myself on the way to Kansas. The mis- 
sion was wholly unexpected to me. It is a mat- 
ter of very little consequence to you, gentlemen, 
what were the circumstances under which I 
accepted the position. It will be sufficient for 
my purpose here, to-night, and for your under- 
standing of the subject, for me to say that, partly 
at the solicitation of Gov. Walker, I consented 
to go with him, and to try what I could do, with 
my poor abilities, to serve my country in that 
arduous position. [Cheers.] But neither Gov. 
Walker nor myself were so blind, so improvident, 
as to undertake that solemn duty without having 
marked out for us, and perfectly understood and 
agreed upon, a line of policy which seemed to us 
and to the Administration to be calculated, if 
anything could be calculated, to bring about 
peace and harmony in that distracted Territory. 
The fundamental principle agreed upon between 
the President and his Cabinet on the one side, 
and Gov. Walker on the other side, and that 
which was obviously the only principle upon 
which anything could be effected, was the sov- 
ereignty of the people. [Continued applause.] 
It was the right of the people to control their 
own affairs, to establish their own institutions; 
and, in the strongest and most unequivocal lan- 
guage, this principle was embodied in the in- 
structions made out for Gov. Walker, and given 
to me as the chart by which I was to guide my- 
self, preceding him as I did into the Territory, 
and becoming acting Governor until his arrival. 
Gentlemen, in order that there shall -be the most 
distinct understanding of this matter, I ask your 
indulgence while I read a few extracts from the 
letter of instructions to which I have referred. 
[Cheers.] You will find them in the public doc- 



aments of the present session of Congress — a 
document ordered to be printed by the Senate of 
the United States, and containing the correspond- 
ence between Gov. Walker and the Department 
of State, in Washington. In the very first letter 
of instructions, dated the 31st of March, 1857, 
Gen. Cass, speaking in the name and by the 
authority of the President, using the language of 
his Inaugural Address, instructs us " to leave 
the people of the Territory free from all foreign 
iuterference to decide their own destiny for them,- 
selves, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." [Cheers.] Their destiny, gen- 
tlemen ! I apprehend that the destiny of a peo- 
ple involves something more than the mere ques- 
tion of Slavery ; I imagine that it involves every- 
thing that can affect their interests or their 
feelings, or evjn their prejudices. But this is 
not all. This same letter goes on to say, " the 
institutions of Kansas should be established by 
the votes of the people of Kansas, unawed and 
uninterrupted by force or fraud." Nor is this 
yet all. So perfect was this understanding, so 
plain, that this language, these ideas, are reiter- 
ated over and over again, in order that neither 
Gov. Walker nor myself should be under any 
possible misapprehension with regard to the 
judgment of the Government as to the duties we 
were sent to Kansas to perform. The same letter 
say3, that " when such a Constitution shall be 
submitted to the people of the Territory, they 
must be protected in the exercise of their right 
of voting for or against that instrument, and the 
expression of the popular will must not be inter- 
rupted by fraud or violence." [Applause.] Now, 
gentlemen, I beg you to remember, for it i3 im- 
portant, two very remarkable characteristics of 
these instructions, and they are these : that there 
is a distinct anticipation that that Constitution 
is to be submitted — the expression of a distinct 
opinion that it ought to be submitted to the votes 
of the people ; and again, an apprehension, 
strange and extraordinary under the circum- 
stances, that the expression of the popular voice 
might be interrupted by fraud or violence. I 
beg you to remember, gentlemen, that then, on 
the 30th March, \%b1, the President of the Uni- 
ted States and Gen. Cass, in making out their 
instructions to Gov. Walker and myself, seem to 
have had some not very obscure idea that things 
were managed not altogether fairly in that dis- 
tant Territory, [sensation ;] that some wrong had 
been or would be done to the people of Kansas. 
Well, now, gentlemen, it is not necessary for me 
to go further than this. These written instruc- 
tions are sufficient; and I can say here, to-night, 
that there was not a word written or uttered, 
either by the President or Gen. Cass, or any 
member of the Cabinet, that was not as distinct 
in character as the words I have read you here 
to-night. There was our commission to go forth 
to the people of Kansas, and see that, free from 
all foreign interference, relieved from all fears of 
force or fraud, they should be permitted to work 
out their own destiny, to establish their own in- 
stitutions, to vote upon their own Constitution. 
[Prolonged cheering.] 

I hive already said that I preceded Governor 
Walker, arriving in the Territory about the 
middle of April. I found the condition of the 



people very different from what I had expected 
to find it. I had supposed that there was no 
question calculated to disturb their peace or to i 
interfere with the operations of the Territorial 
Government, except that of Slavery; and that 
this being settled, everything else would neces- 
sarily be settled with it. But the dissatisfaction 
went altogether beyond this. I found the whole 
people almost at war with the Territorial Gov- 
ernment, as the President, in his recent special 
message, declares, continually in a state of rebel- 
lion, and ready to overthrow it at any moment, 
if they had not been kept in obedience by the 
power of the army of the United States! [Sen- 
sation.] It seemed to me, gentlemen, to be a 
very strange state of affairs ; and, as you may 
naturally suppose, I was extremely anxious to 
ascertain the causes of it. I was perfectly' well 
satisfied that in this Government no such great 
phenomenon could take place among a people so 
intelligent as those of Kansas, without some 
cause, and that a good cause, either real or 
imaginary. I felt it to be my duty, and when 
Governor Walker came into the Territory he felt 
it to be his, and acted upon that sense of duty, 
to go out among the people, in order to hear their 
complaints, and ascertain, as far as possible, their 
desires and demands. To my utter astonish- 
ment, gentlemen, I found them de. luring their 
determination never to obey the laws which had 
been passed by the Territorial Legislature, be- 
cause they stated they had no participation in 
the passage of those laws. They said to us that 
the Legislatures which had pretended to repre- 
sent them did not actually represent them ; that 
they had been elected in some instances by in- 
truders from a neighboring State, and in other 
instances by fraud and violence too monstrous 
at that time io be credited by me. It seemed to 
me altogether impossible that the charges made 
against their fellow-citizens, and especially the 
officers of the Territory, could be true to the ex- 
tent alleged. And I must confess I never did 
altogether believe it until I saw with my own 
eyes similar transactions attempted by the same 
party, which satisfied me that .the complaints of 
the people were in great measure just and true. 
[Continued cheering.] The policy pursued by 
Governor Walker, it seems to me, gentlemen, was 
a wise policy; it was a benign policy. His ob- 
ject was to persuade the people temporarily to 
submit to the Government, until, by the due 
operation of the existing laws and by the exer- 
cise of the elective franchise they could establish 
laws for themselves. The people, in answer to 
his persuasions, and to my persuasions — for I 
was generally with him — would say, " You in- 
vite us to go to the ballot-box. We know that 
it will be perfectly useless for us to go there " 
•'Why?" "Because we shall be overrun by our 
neighbors." Governor Walker said : " We have 
the army at our command in order to prevent the 
intrusion of foreigners." They replied : " If you 
prevent them, you cannot prevent the officers 
from cheating and defrauding us, so that it will 
at last amount to the same thing." [Sensation.] 
Shortly after I arrived in the Territory, the 
process of taking the census was completed, and 
the returns were made by the sheriffs of the dif- 
ferent counties to the probate judges, in order 



that they might be corrected. That law which 
had been passed at the previous session of the 
Legislature had provided that every voter in the 
Territory should be registered, and no man 
should be entitled to vote for delegates to the 
Convention unless he was registered. Going 
through the Territory, I heard, on all sides, 
charges of great wrong and injustice; I heard 
the great mass of the people proclaiming that 
the officers of the Territory had utterly disre- 
garded right and justice in the performance of 
this duty — in fact, they had not performed the 
duty at all. They said, in many instances, men 
of high character, residents of long standing, 
men whose residence could not possibly have 
been unknown to the officers, had been left off 
the register. I said to them, " Gentlemen, you 
might have gone to the probate judges, had 
those names put on the lists." But they said 
it was not their duty to go ; it was the duty 
of the officers to register their names. Now, it 
is useless for any of us to disguise the truth. 
The great mass of the Free State people didn't 
care a fig whether their names were registered 
or not. They were opposed to the Convention ; 
they were opposed to all the laws and all the 
proceedings under it. [" Good ! " applause.] On, 
the- other hand, gentlemen, I have not the slight- 
est doubt that the officers of the Territory, or at 
least some of them, were perfectly willing that 
their names should be left off, and I am very well 
satisfied that the officers didn't fairly perform 
their duty, even in the nineteen counties in which 
an imperfect registry was obtained. In some in- 
stances, I know that they didn't do their duty. I 
had a correspondence with them, and in some 
instances they refused to do it. In the county 
of Shawnee, a large and populous county, the 
sheriff wrote to me that he had not time to take 
the census, and would not do it. There are 
thirty-eight counties, gentlemen, in the Territory 
of Kansas, including the distant county of Ara- 
pahoe. In nineteen of these counties, an imper- 
fect registry was obtained, giving a vote of 9,251. 
In the other nineteen counties, there was no 
census and no registration. I think it very 
probable, although I do not know the fact, that 
in some of these counties the officers were deter- 
red and discouraged by the people from the duty 
of taking the census. In others, I believe that 
the officers utterly refused to do their duty. I 
know it was the case with regard to some of 
them, and I know that the people of some of 
those counties ardently desired to be represented 
in the Convention, for they afterward, under the 
statement from Governor Walker and myself, 
that probably they would be admitted, elected 
delegates, and sent them up to the Convention ; 
but they were not admitted to seats. Now, the 
Free State men, believing that they had been 
wronged and outraged in the election of the 
Legislature, were not disposed to submit to any 
laws, to go into any election, nor to give any 
assistance in taking the registration of the voters 
for the Convention under the act of the Legisla- 
ture. 

On the other hand, the Pro-Slavery party, hav- 
ing all the local offices in their hands, and having 
had the two Legislatures which had sat in the 
Territory, and the whole organization from the 



beginning, were equally willing that the other 
party should be entirely left out. [Laughter.] I 
doubt not, genetemen, that some of those officers 
who were alleged to have been mere partisan 
tools in the hands of the leaders, did actually 
neglect to take the census of these interior 
counties with the view of preventing the repre- 
sentation of the Free State people in the Con- 
vention. At the same time, I have no doubt it 
is true, that the great majority of the Free State 
people did not wish to be represented, and did 
not intend to be represented at all. They deter- 
mined to hold off from it. This is the true state 
of the case with regard to that Convention. I 
could not know what was the population of these 
interior and distant counties. I was not even 
informed correctly whether there was any con- 
siderable population in them which might claim 
a representation in the Convention. I waited 
with great anxiety when the returns began to 
come to me, as Secretary and acting Governor, 
for those from the nineteen counties that had 
been wholly neglected. I had not been informed 
whether, in th6se counties, the officers had taken 
the census or not, except, perhaps, in relation to 
one or two of them, and I had no power to force 
the officers to do their duty ; I had no power to 
appoint officers where there were none to perform 
those duties, and the people in those counties, 
whatever might have been their disposition, were 
absolutely deprived of the opportunity of repre- 
sentation in that Convention. Now, I have been 
denounced, especially by some of the papers in 
the Territory, and perhaps out of it, for having 
made the apportionment when I did. I have 
said, and I repeat it again, that if I had then 
known what I have since ascertained, and what 
I now believe and know to be true, I should have 
hesitated before I would have made an appor- 
tionment which could have brought about the 
state of things that now exists. [Applause.] I 
should have suffered the whole law to fail. I 
would have had no Convention, representing one- 
half of the Territory — although, gentlemen, that 
half undoubtedly represented much the larger 
portion of the population — but I would have had 
no such Convention, I would have been the in- 
strument of bringing about no such injustice, if 
I had supposed or dreamed for a single moment 
that they could have attempted to carry out the 
plan which they subsequently adopted, and are 
now endeavoring to force upon the people. 
[Cheers.] But under the circumstbnees, without 
information, supposing, as I did then, that the 
people who had refused to go into this election, 
or to go into the process of registration, were in 
some measure factious, and not justified in what 
they were doing, and not knowing the character 
of the population in the other counties, or 
whether they had any considerable population, 
and being under the necessity of acting by a 
particular time, (for the returns were to be made 
on the 1st of May, in my office, and the election 
was to take plaoe on the 15th of June,) I say, 
under the pressure of these circumstances, I 
could do nothingbut whatl did. 1 waited until the 
very last moment, somewhere about the 21st of 
Jlay, before I made the apportionment, in order 
that the number of delegates assigned to each 
district might be known, and that the ten days 



notice required by law might be given in due 
time. I waited, with the expectation that Gov. 
Walker would come, so that I could have the 
benefit of his advice ; for if he had been there, 
it would have been his duty, and not mine, to 
make the apportionment. The most important 
facts which bear upon the case have come to my 
knowledge since the act by which I apportioned 
the Territory for the election of the sixty del- 
egates who composed the Constitutional Con- 
vention. Now, gentlemen, although Gov. Walker 
and myself endeavored to persuade the people 
of the Territory to go into that election, and 
although I thought then and still think that it 
was unfortunate that the people who were reg- 
istered did not go into that election, and get 
control of the Convention,"yet it was impossible, 
under the state of things then existing, with the 
state of feeling then prevailing in the minds of 
the people, to persuade them to participate in 
that election. There had not been sufficient 
time ; the confidence of the people had not been 
obtained, either by Governor Walker or myself. 
We felt it to be our duty to enforce the law for 
the time being, but only so far as to enable them 
to have a quiet and peaceable election, "free 
from fraud or- violence," to use the language of 
the Secretary of State. In this process of per- 
suasion, gentlemen, Gov. Walker in his celebrated 
speech at Topeka, in order to induce the people 
there to go into an election for delegates to this 
Convention, said to them, that in his judgment 
" the Convention would submit the Constitution 
to the votes of the people of the Territory." 
Almost as one man, the large crowd which sur- 
rounded him proclaimed that he was mistaken. 
Then it was that Gov. Walker uttered his cele- 
brated declaration, that "if the Convention did 
not submit the Constitution to the vote of the 
people, he would join them in all lawful means 
to oppose it." [Loud cheers.] In all the 
speeches made before and after that time, by 
Gov. Walker or myself, similar declarations were 
made. Both he and I pledged ourselves in every 
possible manner — our honor, character, every- 
thing — to the people of the Territory, that we 
would connive at no fraud — would suffer no trick, 
no legerdemain, no device of any sort, to deprive 
them of their dearest rights. [Applause.] And 
we said more, gentlemen ; we said, in making 
those pledges, that we had the authority and 
support of the President of the United States 
and his whole Cabinet. [Laughter and applause.] 
I think, gentlemen, we were authorized to make 
this declaration. I think a fair interpretation of 
the instructions of the President to Gov. Walker, 
a copy of which Gen. Cass gave to me when I 
went to the Territory as acting Governor, will 
warrant me in saying that no other construction 
can fairly or honestly be put" upon them. [Ap- 
plause.] It is an important fact in this connec- 
tion for me to state to you that the President and 
hi3 Cabinet were fully advised of the proceed- 
ings of Gov. Walker and myself in the Territory. 
And more than that, he was fully advised of 
what were believed to be the consequences that 
would follow, if any other course of policy 
should be pursued. You will pardon me, gen- 
tlemen, if I refer you to the documents in this 
respect. [Applause.] In Gov. Walker's dispatch 



to Gen. Cass, dated the 2d of June, 1857, he 
wrote : 

" On one point the sentiment of the people is 
' almost unanimous, that the Constitution must 
' be submitted for ratification or rejection to a vote 
' of the people, who shall be bona fide residents 
' of the Territory next fall." 

As early as the 2d June, Gov. Walker wrote 
to the President that no other policy would suc- 
ceed in restoring peace and quiet to the people. 
He communicated to the President the speech he 
made at Topeka, to which I have already refer- 
red. In the dispatch of the 15th of July he in- 
formed Gen. Cass " that, without his assurances 
that the Constitution would be submitted, the 
Territory would have been immediately involved 
in a general and sanguinary civil war." [Ap- 
plause.] Such is the tenor of the whole corres- 
pondence. Every intelligent reading man in this 
whole audience knows that it was the assurances 
given in that speech at Topeka, and similar as- 
surances previous to that sime, which prevented 
the Topeka Government from being organized at 
that very moment, and perhaps put in actual 
operation in direct opposition and hostility to 
the Territorial Government. You will remember 
that in their Legislature, and in the Convention 
of the people which assembled at Topeka on that 
occasion, there was a long contest upon the 
question whether that Government should im- 
mediately be put in operation, or whether a differ- 
ent course should be pursued ; and owing to the 
persuasive policy of Gov. Walker, a milder and 
safer course was adopted. [Applause.] Now, 
gentlemen, I do not know what view the Presi- 
dent of the United States now entertains of the 
course of proceedings adopted by Gov. Walker 
during his period of service in Kansas, to which 
I have referred, as embodied in the dispatches 
read to you to-night. [A Voice — He don't know 
himself.] But this I have to say, that not one 
word of reproof or dissent was ever written, either 
to Gov. Walker or myself, from the time we went 
first to the Territory until we came away. [Loud 
applause.] The President of the United States 
heard Gov. Walker proclaim to the people that 
they were entitled to vote upon the Constitu- 
tion ; that he would oppose its acceptance by 
Congress, if it were not submitted to that vote. 
The President heard him pledge his character, 
his honor, his reputation, and everything, for the 
prosecution of this policy, and he never uttered 
one word of dissent. [Applause.] I leave it 
for you to determine whether, under these cir- 
cumstances, the President was not fully commit- 
ted to the policy which had been inaugurated 
under his auspices. [Applause.] I leave you 
to determine whether his honor was not pledged, 
as ours was, to this measure of justice for the 
people of Kansas. [Applause.] Well, gentle- 
men, I have said to you, that when the people of 
the Territory told their tale of the wrong, op- 
pression, and violence, that had been committed, 
and the frauds that had been perpetrated, I did 
not believe the story credible. I did not believe 
it possible that such things could havn actually 
taken place in this land of liberty and justice, 
and, as I have already stated, it was not until I 
had seen some things- with my own eyes that I 
did really come to comprehend the true nature 



of the feelings that controlled the masses of the 
people with whom we came in contact. Now, 
as the October election began to approach, it 
became perfectly evident that the policy pursued 
by Gov. Walker was about to succeed, and that 
the people had resolved, almost unanimously, to 
try the experiment, and ascertain whether Gov. 
Walker would really stand by his pledges. They 
had determined to vote in the October election. 
" It is true," they said, " Governor, we will try 
you, but you don't know these officers as we do. 
They will cheat you to your face ; they will cheat 
you out of your eyes, and you can't help your- 
self." What is still more strange, and what 
looked to me at that time to be the very height 
of impudence, they said : " If you do undertake 
to do right, the President of the United States 
will desert you." [Laughter and applause.] "He 
will not let you." [Continued applause.] Why, 
this was a common saying "in the Territory. I 
heard it repeatedly. I laughed at it. I did not 
think it possible that my old friend, James Bu- 
chanan, whom I have respected and supported, 
and honored so long, I did not think it possible 
that he would ever make such a declaration as 
this at all applicable to himself. But the peo- 
ple did tell us, that if we attempted to do right, 
our heads would fly from the block instantly. 
Nevertheless, they said they would try the thing. 
Well, when our friends ot the Pro-Slavery party 
saw what was coming on, when they saw that 
the people had actually determined to go into 
the election, it was perfectly evident to them that 
they would no longer hold power in the Territo- 
ry, for it was conceded before I left Washington 
to go to Kansas, by many of the Pro-Slavery men 
whom I found there, that tbe Free State men 
had a large majority in the Territory ; and when I 
went there, to my entire satisfaction, I found that 
it was true. [Applause and laughter.] I mean 
that I was satisfactorily convinced that it was 
true. [Cheers and laughter.] I do not mean to 
say, gentlemen, that the information which I 
actually obtained was very satisfactory to myself, 
for when I went there I went a regular Border 
Ruffian ; and I may say to you here to-night, that 
if the majority had been on the other side — on 
the side of the South — I would have fqugbt for 
them. [Applause.] I would have stood up for 
theirrights [applause] as earnestly, and with the 
same exertions, with the same sacrifices, with 
which I felt it to be my duty to adhere to the 
rights of the other side, when I found that they 
so greatly preponderated in numbers. 

But when the minority, gentlemen — and it 
was a very small one — ascertained that the peo- 
ple had determined to vote, and that a consequent 
exposure of their weakness would take place, 
they resorted to a device known to all of you, 
for the purpose of excluding the votes of the 
great mass of the people. There had been pre- 
viously existing in the Territorj a law requiring 
the payment of a tax as a qualification for 
voting, but the preceding Legislature, that of 
1857, had repealed this law by the plainest and 
most unequivocal implication. In the judgment 
of the best lawyers in the Territory, and it after- 
ward appeared in the judgment of the President 
of the United States and his whole Cabinet, 
there was not a shadow of difficulty with regard 



to the repeal of that law; yet one of the distin- 
guished judges of the United States in the 
Territory, [laughter,] Judge Cato, [renewed 
laughter,] and another high functionary, the 
United States Attorney, wrote elaborate and 
learned opinions [laughter] to prove the contrary 
of what it seemed to me every intelligent lawyer 
must have known was the plain and simple 
exposition of the law. These opinions were 
sent broadcast over the Territory, for the purpose 
of preventing the mass of the people from voting ; 
for in many of the counties no assessment had 
been made, and where the assessment had been 
made, the great mass of the Free State party 
had refused to pay their taxes and support a 
Government which, they said, was not of their 
own selection. [Applause.] You must not un- 
derstand me, gentlemen, as giving any opinion 
as to the propriety of the conduct of those peo- 
ple who refused to pay their taxes. That is not 
the question I will undertake to discuss to-night; 
but they did refuse to pay their taxes. They 
were not forced to pay them — in a great many 
instances, they had no opportunity to pay them ; 
and the effect of this construction of the law, 
if it had been maintained, would have been to 
exclude the great mass of the people, and let the 
whole Government remain in the hands of an 
inconsiderable minority. I thought, gentlemen, 
and so did Gov. Walker, that it wonld be ex- 
tremely unfortunate if this same difficulty should 
be wrongfully interposed in the way of a peace- 
able settlement through the ballot-box; and, 
accordingly, we exerted ourselves in every lawful 
manner, by speech, by writing, and Gov. Walker 
by his celebrated proclamation, to spread abroad 
among the people, and especially among the 
judges of election that had been appointed un- 
der the Territorial authorities, an exposition of 
the law, which in our judgment, and which in 
the judgment of the President and his Cabinet, 
was the true exposition, giving the whole people, 
without regard to taxation, or any imposition 
by the Territorial Government, the right to par- 
ticipate in the election. Well, the minority, who 
had all the machinery of the Territorial Govern- 
ment, was in this way defeated. The people 
did go forward and vote ; and when they found 
out that this result was inevitable, the minority 
resorted to another means to frustrate the will 
of the majority, and that was by those celebrated 
returns from Oxford, in Johnson county, and 
from three precincts in McGee county. I had 
heard intimations prior to the elections that 
these things were about to take place, but I 
could scarcely believe, and in fact I did not for 
a moment anticipate, that anything of the kind 
could be attempted by men whom I believed to 
be respectable and honest. Why, gentlemen, 
when the returns were coming in from tin differ- 
ent parts of the Territory, I was amazed one 
day, when from an unexpected quarter a package 
was handed to me, said to contain the returns 
from Oxford precinct, Johnson county. It was 
a large roll of paper, and when I tore off the 
envelope I found it consisted of repeated sheets 
pasted together, written closely with names, and 
rolled up like a bolt of dry goods; and, like a 
dry goods man upon h's counter, I rolled it 
along the floor of the office, and I found it ex- 



tended from one end of the building to the oth- 
er — from the front door to the back door — a dis- 
tance of 45 or 50 feet. It contained 1,628 names 
as the vote of a single precinct, the census of 
which has been recently taken by a commission 
established by the Legislature, and what do you 
think is the actual population ? You would 
imagine there would be certainly a thousand 
voters there, or at least seven hundred and fifty, 
or five hundred ; but the fact is, there are just 
thirty-three I [Loud laughter.] 

Well, it now became my duty to give or with- 
hold the certificates upon these returns to the 
members of the Legislature. Johnson county 
borders on the State of Missouri, and was con- 
nected with Douglas, a well-settled county, which 
is really able to poll somewhere in the neighbor- 
hood of 2,000 votes, for nearly every quarter 
section of land in the whole county has boira 
fide occupants. Johnson county was connected 
with Douglas in the apportionment, and the two 
together were entitled to eight representatives in 
the lower House. If these returns from Oxford 
were allowed as genuine and true, the legislative 
power was thrown into the hands of the minority. 
I did not suppose for a moment that the parties 
who had concocted this fraud would seriously 
insist upon its being recognised by Governor 
Walker and myself; but we found that they did 
insist upon it ; that they insisted upon it with 
violence and menaces, and we felt it our duty to 
look into the matter We went down into John- 
son county, a distance of fifty or sixty miles, for 
the purpose of satisfying ourselves, and seeing 
with our own eyes what were the facts ; and I 
tell you here to-night that we travelled in some 
places a distance of eight or ten miles without 
seeing a single house on the road. [Laughter.] 
When we did come to houses in various parts of 
the county, many of them were without roofs, 
without doors, and without chimneys even, 
though in that inclement season of the year. 
We went to the little village of Oxford, and to 
the neighboring village of Santa Fe, in Missouri, 
and we ascertained certainly, beyond all ques- 
tion, that this whole affair was a fraud and for- 
gery from beginning to end, with the exception 
of the few names with which the list commenced. 
It was fortunate for us, and fortunate for justice 
and the rights of the people of Kansas, that the 
affair was so inartificial^ gotten up, and the re- 
turns so imperfectly made out that, without any 
injustice, without going behind the returns, with- 
out exceeding the powers conferred upon us by 
law, we could feel ourselves perfectly justified 
in rejecting them. [Loud applause.] 

When I received that celebrated paper, Gov- 
ernor Walker happened to be at Fort Leaven- 
worth. It was his duty to give a certificate to 
the Delegate in Congress, and it was mine, under 
the law, to give certificates to the representatives 
in the CoudcU and lower House of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. I had made up my mind upon 
the first receipt of this fraudulent paper, that 
rather than sign any certificate upon it, if I 
should be compelled to do so, I would resign 
my place, [applause,] in order to signify the 
sense of wrong and outrage I felt — not only a 
wrong and outrage against the people of Kansas, 
but against myself, in the supposition that I 



could be made the instrument of accomplishing 
so great a fraud. [Loud applause.] I was after- 
ward gratified to learn that Governor Walker, in 
his absence, had expressed to some of his friends 
a similar determination. 

Then, gentlemen, the returns came in from 
McGee county a short time afterwards — 1,200 
votes in a county in which there were but few 
or no inhabitants. Like Johnson, McGee county 
consisted almost entirely of an Indian reservation. 
It had but few white inhabitants. I believe that 
there were some twenty-five or thirty voters in 
the whole county. Gentlemen, I am sorry to 
say that from the time that these returns were 
rejected, and the power in the Territory thrown 
where it properly belonged — in the hands of the 
majority — there was a most significant silence 
at Washington. [Loud laughter.] We saw oc- 
casionally strange outgivings of what was com- 
ing. We heard singular mutterings, and the 
telegraphic dispatches here and there would 
announce that " the President and Cabinet have 
had Governer Walker and Secretary Stanton 
under consideration. They will not dismiss 
them, but they will censure them both." Just 
about that time I had prepared a letter, of some 
two or three lines, addressed to General Cass, 
proposing to resign the post of Secretary on the 
31st of December. I had a particular object in 
view. I supposed that about that time the dif- 
ficulties would all be settled, the troubles would 
be over, and that I could be relieved from ser- 
vice there. A few days afterwards, seeing in 
the papers various apparently authentic state- 
ments, to the effect that the President and his 
Cabinet disapproved our conduct, and would 
either dismiss or gravely censure Governor 
Walker and myself for rejecting these fraudulent 
returns, I instantly addressed a letter to the 
President, referring to my previous letter of res- 
ignation, and also to these representations of his 
disapprobation and displeasure. You will find 
this letter in the printed document already refer- 
red to. In it I said I did not believe the state- 
ments to be true; nevertheless, if they were triie, 
I desired to withdraw my resignation, that I 
might stand on the merits of the act, and take 
my full share of the responsibility. [Loud 
cheers.] 

But what I wish to call your attention to par- 
ticularly is, the fact that there was a most omi- 
nous silence in reference to both these letters. 
[Laughter.] Neither the President nor Gen. 
Cass ever acknowledged my letter of resignation, 
or the subsequent letter recalling it, or ever said 
one word to me in reference to my rejection of 
the Oxford and McGee returns; and from that 
day to this I have never received a line of any 
kind, either from the President or from the Sec- 
retary of State, or anybody else, in reference to 
any of these transactions. [Applause and 
laughter.] I have not even received any official 
information, addressed to me directly, of my 
removal. [Laughter.] I suppose it was intended 
to perform the operation as some of those cel- 
ebrated executioners do sometimes, with so sharp 
a sword as not even to let the victim know his 
head is off. [Laughter.] Just in that way mine 
was cut off, and I do not know it officially to 



this day, [laughter.] except that I have seen the 
commission of my successor. 

It -was the occurrence of these facts which 
tended to open my eyes as to what had previously 
existed in the Territory. I have said that I did 
not believe the statements that had been made. 
I could not believe that such outrages had ever 
been perpetrated. I was disposed at first to 
believe that some unprincipled persons had been 
engaged in these affairs for mere individual or 
party purposes ; but when I saw afterward the 
manner in which the whole party treated the 
affair — when 1 saw that we were boldly denounced, 
and that the whole party, with a few' honorable 
exceptions, made themselves participants in the 
crime — I understood in a moment what was the 
foundation of the complaints that had been pre- 
viously made by the people. "[Applause.] The 
President of the United States, up to about the 
time of the Oxford frauds, or a little previous to 
that time, had faithfully adhered to the policy 
upon which be sent Gov. Walker and myself to 
Kansas. About the last of August or the 1st of 
September, it seemed to me that a great change 
suddenly came over the Pro-Slavery leaders in 
the Territory. Up to that time they had been 
comparatively quiet ; they had even in a great 
measure begun to acquiesce in the policy which 
had been inaugurated by Gov. Walker, and was 
about to be so successfully carried out; and if 
the Administration had remained true and firm 
in the position with which it set out, there is no 
doubt that at this hour there would have been 
peace and harmony in the Territory. [Applause.] 
But I could see a change in the whole tone of 
conversation, in the whole bearing, of the leading 
men in the Territory. Some of them did not 
scruple to tell me that the President of the United 
States was with them. Jefferson Davis, in one 
of his speeches in Mississippi, in the most signi- 
ficant language proclaimed that he had the most 
undoubted information that President Buchanan 
did condemn Gov. Walker, and was with him 
(Davis) and his party in reference to the Kansas 
policy ; :ind these Pro-Slavery leaders would oc- 
casionally let out the fact that they were in cor- 
respondence with these Southern men, and, I am 
sorry to sav, with Northern men, too ; for it was 
a boast repeatedly made by them, that even if 
President Buchanan did send Gov. Walker's 
name or mine to the Senate, they had the men 
counted and numbered, and their names could 
be given, who would be sufficient to defeat our 
confirmation. [Cries of " Shame" and hisses.] 
That wrts proclaimed over and over again iu the 
Territory, and the.-e gentlemen distinctly said 
that they counted upon the support of the Pres- 
ident and his Cabinet. What secret information 
they had at that time I do not know ; but I will 
call your attention to one fact — it is very well to 
note it as we go along — that up to the 15th of 
August, the date of the celebrated letter to Prof. 
Sillimau and the Connecticut clergymen, the 
President evidently com.inued to approve the 
policy of Gov. Walker; for in that letter he jus- 
tifies himself for employing the- army in Kansas 
in these words : 

" It is my imperative duty to employ the troops 
1 of the United States, should it become necessary, 
1 in defending the Convention against violence 



' while framing the Constitution, and in protecting 
' the bona fide inhabitants qualified to vote under 
' the provisions of this instrument in the free 
' exercise of the right of suffrage, when it shall be 
' submitted to them for their ratification or re- 
1 jeetion." [Loud applause.] 

Up to the 15th of August the President of the 
United States justified himself before the people 
of the whole country for keeping the army in 
Kansas, upon the distinct ground that it was hie 
duty to protect the people in their right of voting 
for or against the Constitution, when it should 
be submitted to them. Gentlemen, is not this a 
clear indication on the part of the President 
that he was, at least up to that period, fully and 
unequivocally committed to all the declarations 
and the whole line of policy which had been 
adopted by Gov. Walker in the Territory, assuring 
the people that they had a right to adopt their 
own institutions by their own votes, and espe- 
cially that the Constitution should be submitted 
for their ratification or rejection? [Applause.] 
It is the strongest possible form in which the 
President could have given this assurance, for 
he there defends and justifies himself for employ- 
ing the arrny^ in that service upon this very 
ground. I will proceed a little further with this 
narrative of events, which is necessary in order to 
enable you to see precisely the position in which 
I was placed there, and the circumstances under 
which I performed certain acts, and adopted the 
line of policy which I pursued when it become my 
duty to adopt any policy as the Acting Governor 
of the Territory. A little before the October elec- 
tion, the Convention met. It represented a very 
considerable minority of the people. While there 
were 9,251 registered voters under the census 
law, there were but about 2,200 that voted for 
members of the Convention, and only 1,300 of 
those voted for the members of that Convention 
who were actually chosen and took their seats. 
Sixty members elected by 1,800 votes — each del- 
egate actually representing only thirty individ- 
uals ! This Convention met, and, without at- 
tempting to do anything, adjourned over until 
after the October election, for the purpose, I 
suppose, of ascertaining what would be the result 
of that election, and also to save their friends 
from any embarrassment which might result 
from their action upon the grave questions which 
were submitted to their decision. After the elec- 
tion had transpired, and the Convention reassem- 
bled, the violence of that body was almost unex- 
ampled. Leading members of it denounced 
Governor Walker and myself in the most un- 
measured terms for the course we h'id taken in 
reference to the returns from Oxford and McGee. 
I will give you one little incident, to show you 
what was the character and disposition of that 
body of men. It happened after they reassem- 
bled. It was necesaary for them to elect an ad- 
ditional or assistant clerk or secretary, and the 
name of a certain Mr. Hand was proposed. 
Some gentleman rose and remarked that Mr. 
Hand was one of the clerks at the polls in Ox- 
ford, from which this immense return was made. 
Another gentleman arose and proposed that he 
should be elected clerk by acclamation, and they 
actually did elect him by acclamation. [Ap- 
plause and expressions of indignation.] I was 



not present myself, but I had it from a gentleman 
who heard it with his own ears and saw it with 
his own eyes. He was elected by acclamation, 
because it was suggested that he was one of the 
clerks at Oxford. This was a very significant 
indication of what the Convention intended or 
was likely to do before it adjourned. Now, I 
want to showyou exactly what it did. It adopted 
a Constitution. [Laughter.] The great body 
of that instrument, gentlemen, as the President 
of the United States says, is so similar to the 
Constitutions of other States of this Union, that 
it it is hardly possible there should be any mis- 
take in it. [Laughter.] But they did make a 
little variation, [laughter,] and there was a very 
considerable difference effected by this little vari- 
ation. Let us look at it. At one time, I believe — 
that is, before the adjournment in October, before 
these Oxford returns, and before it was distinctly 
and perfectly well understood that the President 
and his Cabinet were with them — I say at one 
time I believe the Convention would have sub- 
mitted the Constitution to a direct vote of the 
people. But, by some secret influence — I know 
not what — a different disposition soon manifested 
itself; and I do know that the Secretary of the 
Interior had a certain agent who was very busy 
among the members of that Convention. It was 
said that he undertook to represent the opinion, 
if not of the President, at least of some members 
of the Cabinet. But, gentlemen, Iknow nothing 
of this except as I have heard it and therefore 
I do not undertake to say it. I only say this — 
that some secret influence was at work, and that 
this Convention, which at one time was prepared 
to submit the Constitution to the people, pursued 
altogether a different course. Now, I propose to 
read to you the manner in which this Constitu- 
tion was to be sanctioned by the people. The 
7th section of the schedule of the Constitution 
provides in these words : 

" Before this Constitution shall be sent to Con- 
1 gress, asking for admission into the Union as a 
' State, it shall he submitted to all the white male 
' inhabitants of this Territory, for approval or dis- 
' approval, as follows." 

Now, that is very strong. Nothing could be 
fairer. Then it goes on and repeats the same 
thing, in different language : 

" At each election, the Constitution framed by 
' this Convention shall be submitted to all the 
' white male inhabitants of the Territory of Kan- 
1 sas, in said Territory on that day, over the age 
' of 21 years, for ratification or rejection, in the 
' following manner and form." 

First, it is to be submitted for approval or dis- 
approval, and then it is to be submitted for rat- 
ification or rejection — but thereby hangs a story, 
[laughter] — in the following form : >» 

" The ballots cast at the said election shall be 
' endorsed 'Constitution with Slavery,' or ' Con- 
' stitution with no Slavery.' " [Laughter.] 

Now, gentlemen, one would suppose that at 
least one question was fairly settled. They set 
out in the first part of this section by submit- 
ting it for the approval or disapproval of the 
people, and then again they submit it for the rat- 
ification or rejection of the people, and they 
finally come down to a ballot for the Constitution 
with Slavery or the Constitution with no Slavery. 



One would naturally suppose that, as they had 
come down to so small a point as that, they would 
at least give you that fairly and frankly ; but if 
the No Slavery ticket prevail, the schedule goes 
on to say : 

" The rights of property in slaves now in the 
' Territory shall in no manner be interfered with." 
[Great laughter.] 

That is, you may vote for the Constitution with 
Slavery, or for the Constitution with no Slavery, 
but at all events it shall still be precisely such a 
slave Territory as it is now, [laughter ;] and the 
President of the United States, you know, tells 
you that it is just as much a slave State as South 
Carolina or Georgia. It is true that there are 
very few slaves there ; at' that time there were 
very few slaves there, and at this time there are 
very many fewer.* [Great laughter and loud 
applause.] Yes, gentlemen, the number is grow- 
ing small and beautifully less by degrees. [Laugh- 
ter.] But, to be serious, I have to say, as a 
Southern man — as a man who never resided 
during any part of his life except within a slave- 
holding community — I have to say it to you here 
to-night, as I would say it to that generous and 
magnanimous people whom I represented on the 
floor of Congress for ten consecutive years, that 
I should blush to present such a question as this 
to the people of any State in this Union, and say 
that it fairly presented to them the question of a 
free or a slave State. [Loud cheers.] I have 
no doubt that some heated partisans in Washing- 
ton, or elsewhere in my section of country, will 
find serious fault with me for making this decla- 
ration ; but I do not know why, as a Southern 
man, dealing with this question, I should not be 
as frank and as honest as if I were not a South- 
ern man. [Applause.] If the people of that 
Territory had been in favor of making it a slave 
State, I would have been with them — I should 
have stood by them — I should have insisted 
upon their right to do so ; but, on the other 
hand, it was acknowledged, at the time the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill was passed, that the people 
had the right to make it a free State ; and I 
maintained there, as I maintain it now, here, 
that they were entitled to the privilege of making 
it a free State in reality. [Applause.] I have 
no idea — indeed, I know the contrary — that the 
great mass of the people of that Territory would 
have been disposed to confiscate the property of 
the few slaveholders in the Territory. And what 
is one remarkable fact is, that every holder of 
property of that kind to any considerable amount, 
was fair, honest, and ready to submit the ques- 
tion to the people. [Applause.] And it was 
chiefly those political persons who had been sent 
into the Territory for the purpose of operating 
upon the institutions of the new State, with a 
view to acquire reputation in the distant States 
of the Union — it was chiefly those individuals,, 
many of whom have now left the Territory, and 
will probably never go back, [applause,] who 
were in favor of this violent, unreasonable course. 

Now, gentlemen, what ought any honest man 
to say to the false pretences which are made 
upon the face of this article in the schedule, 
which repeats the proposition to submit the Con- 
stitution to the approval or disapproval of the 
people, and finally comes down to another ques- 



9 



tion very different from that ? What, theD, to the I 
prevarication and equivocation in the actual I 
question which is presented, when they come 
down to determine the character of the ballots 
that shall be deposited in the box? Well may 
that distinguished son of Virginia, Henry A. 
Wise, [loud cheers,] proclaim to the people of 
the South, that this schedule is anti-republican. 
Well may he call upon the people of the South 
to come up in a frank and manly manner, and 
acknowledge the truth. Why, gentlemen, if you 
will go to the papers in the South that have 
some reputation for candor and fairness — take 
th% Charleston Mercury, for instance, whose views 
are so extreme, and at the same time so sincerely 
expressed, that it can well afford to tell the 
truth — you will hear them proclaiming, without 
any hesitation, that it is false that this Constitu- 
tion submits the question of Slavery to the peo- 
ple. It submits nothing, says the Charleston 
Mercury, but the question whether slaves shall 
subsequently be introduced into the Territory. 
With that indomitable Virginian, I think that this 
of itself is sufficient to induce the rejection of the 
Constitution by Congress. 

But when we come to look a little further into 
this instrument, and see what else they have 
done — what else they have attempted to impose 
upon the people — it seems to me that not a 
shadow of doubt can remain upon the mind of 
any intelligent, honest, patriotic individual. In 
the first place, they have made a very unjust — 
aye, I will say a very iniquitous — apportionment 
for the new State Legislature. They have based 
the apportionment for the county of Johnson 
upon those false and forged returns which I have 
already described to you. They have given to 
that county no less than four Representatives 
and two Senators, while the county of Shawnee, 
in the interior, a Free State county, with a much 
larger population — I believe with double or 
treble the actual population of Johnson county — 
has but two Representatives and one Senator. 

Now, gentlemen, remember what 1 have told 
you about the election of clerk, by acclamation, 
because he was a clerk at the Oxford precinct in 
the election of October, and then see what they 
have done in reference to the representation of 
that county. I say, if there were nothing else 
than this, it is sufficient to consign the whole 
instrument to everlasting infamy. [Great ap- 
plause.] 1 should hold myself disgraced forever, 
if, knowing the facts as I do know them, I could 
ever consent, under any circumstances, to favor 
an instrument which contains so foul a blot as 
that. [Applause.] It is an outrage that taints 
and corrupts the whole thing; it is so rank, that 
it smells to heaven, and would call down its 
curses upon any man who knowingly would give 
his sanction to it. [Applause.] That is one of 
the things for which I oppose the Lecompton 
Constitution, and for which I think Congress 
ought to reject it. But, again, it was very evi- 
dent to my mind, as soon as this schedule was 
adopted, that it was but a part and parcel of the 
whole course of proceeding that had been adopted 
by the minority who were in the Territory from 
the beginning, and that they had artfully laid 
their plaDS for the purpose of carrying out the 
same system of fraud and wrong. They did a 



thing which was never done before by any Con- 
vention under similar circumstances. They au- 
thorized the President of the Convention, John 
Calhoun, [hisses,] to appoint all the officers of 
the election throughout the Territory. It is true 
that other Conventions have authorized their 
Presidents to issue writs of election to the reg- 
ular officers of the Territory, but this Convention 
authorized John Calhoun to employ his own 
creatures for the purpose of conducting this 
election, discarding and setting aside the officers 
that had recently been elected by the people 
throughout the whole Territory. 

Remember, gentlemen, the October election 
had just taken place, the Probate Judges, the 
Sheriffs and Magistrates, all the officers, had been 
elected by the people in every county, and yet 
the Convention authorized Calhoun to set them 
all aside, disregard the will of the people, over- 
look the men in whom the people had reposed 
confidence, and appoint just such men as. he 
chose for the important purpose of conducting 
this election, and then the returns were all to be 
made to himself. [Suppressed laughter.] Then 
there is no provision in this schedule for any 
oaths of office, either by Calhoun himself or by 
any of the officers appointed under him Now, 
that is a very remarkable thing. Whatever may 
be said of the propriety and general policy of 
exacting oaths under these circumstances, cer- 
tainly these gentlemen of the minority in Kansas 
had never been scrupulous upon that point, for 
they had adopted test oaths from the beginning 
of the history of the Territory down to the end- 
ing of their power, and yet, when they come to 
give all power into the hands of their own officer, 
they do not require an oath to be taken by any 
one of his subordinates. 

Again, yon all remember that when Governor 
Walker, in his inaugural address and in his To- 
peka speech, and other written and spoken ad- 
dresses, took the ground that the Constitution 
was to be submitted to the bona fide inhabitants 
of the Territory, a great outcry was raised over 
the whole country, especially by the Pro-Slavery 
party within the Territory. They sai'd that Gov. 
Walker intended to submit the Constitution to 
any man that might happen to be in the Terri- 
tory on the day of submission, and that the Emi- 
grant Aid Society would pour in its instruments 
for the purpose of voting upon it. Well, when 
Gov. Walker was called upon in reference to 
these expressions, he never failed to say that he 
did think, if the bona fide residency of any man 
could be actually ascertained, though he had been 
in the Territory but a single day, he ought to be 
entitled to vote upon the Constitution under 
which he expected to live ; but, inasmuch as it 
could not be fairly ascertained, he thought that 
some reasonable length of time (three or six 
months) ought to be required, as proof of the 
bona fide character of that inhabitancy. Now, 
one would hardly suppose that these gentlemen, 
after having denounced Gov. Walker for an in- 
tention he never entertained, would themselves 
set to work and actually do the very thing which 
they denounced. And yet, they proved that every 
bona fide inhabitant, who may be in the Terri- 
tory on the day of election, shall be entitled to 
vote. [Laughter.] Now, gentlemen, if they had 



10 



not found fault with Gov. Walker, if they had 
not charged him with a fraudulent intention, 
based on a mere suspicion, we might not. per- 
haps, be justified in dwelling upon this point, and 
drawing this inference from it; but, while they 
charge the fraud upon him, they resort to the 
same thing in a worse form. Taken in connec- 
tion with all the other facts, it is perfectly plain 
to my mind that they intended to do the thing 
which they suspected Gov. Walker intended. 
[Applause.] And, as another proof of this fact, 
they hurried on the election in mid-winter, the 
most inclement season of the year, when the 
Missouri river might well be expected to be closed, 
and Avhen the Emigrant Aid Society could not 
bring in its voters at all, so that they could have 
the thing all their own way. On the 21st and 
24th of December the general election was to take 
place, when emigrants could not come in from a 
distance, but when they could easily step over 
from the adjoining State, as we know some of 
them did. 

Now, gentlemen, all these things to which I 
have referred might possibly have been incorpo- 
rated in this Constitution without any fraudu- 
lent design. I could hardly believe that so ma,nj 
things, looking to such a design, could be incor- 
porated in one instrument, without such an in- 
tention having been entertained by the framers 
of it ; and when we come to look at the facts 
which actually occurred afterward, when we find 
the frauds which were anticipated under this 
instrument actually perpetrated in the most ex- 
traordinary manner, it is impossible for any man 
to hesitate in the belief that it was the object and 
purpose of these men in the beginning, and that 
the election of this Oxford clerk, by acclamation, 
was no unmeaning indication of the intentions 
of that body. [Applause.] What did they do ? 
In this celebrated precinct of Oxford, where 
the commission established by the Legislature 
was recently in session, the Territorial Legisla- 
ture found 33 inhabitants ; they returned 1,200. 
In the precinct of Shawnee, Johnson county, 
where I suppose they may giv» a hundred legal 
votes, they returned between seven and eight 
hundred. At the Delaware Crossing, in Leaven- 
worth county, a county that has eight Represent- 
atives under the apportionment of this Consti- 
tution, some one, I know not who, altered the 
return from 43 votes to something like 400, for 
the purpose of throwing a popular majority in 
that large controlling county. What do all these 
things mean? I heard it stated repeatedly be- 
fore the election on the 2 1st of December, when 
the Constitution was to be submitted to the votes 
of the people for their ratification or rejection, 
for their approval or disapproval, provided they 
should vote for the Constitution with Slavery, 
and for the Constitution with no Slavery, but for 
Slavery at all events, and for the Constitution at 
all events — [laughter] — I heard it frequently 
stated, among gentlemen of that party, that if 
they could get a majority of the vote that had 
been cast previously in October, it would be sat- 
isfactory evidence that a majority of the people 
were in favor of the Constitution in some form 
or other, and it would be adopted by Congress. 
It was perfectly plain to my mind that they had 
fixed upon getting a majority of the vote cast in 



October, which was a little upward of 11,000; 
and they gauged it very beautifully — they got 
6,700, a little more than half the number of votes 
cast in October. They might have diminished 
the Oxford vote, the Shawnee vote, the Kickapoo 
vote, and the Delaware Crossing vote, but it was 
necessary for them to have these large votes there 
for two purposes — in the first place, to maintain 
the credit of the vote in October, and with per- 
fect brazen impudence to maintain the necessity 
and correctness of that great outrage, and then 
to give themselves the entire control of the new 
State Government. 

But, gentlemen, this is not the whole extent 
of the iniquitous designs embodied in this Le- 
compton Constitution. It was very currently 
stated, after the October election, in many parts 
of the Territory, that when the new Legislature 
met, they would repeal all the laws that existed, 
pass no others, and suffer anarchy to prevail — 
that is, put the Topeka Constitution into operation 
by force and power. It was not so entertained 
except by the most violent of the Free State 
party. I am equally well satisfied, indeed I know, 
thoroughly know, that the great mass of the 
people entertained no such design ; but when 
the Legislature came together, although the vio- 
lent men urged this course upon them, yet they 
resisted it ; and there was found a conservative 
majority even in this Free State Legislature who 
were not willing to launch the Territory upon 
the sea of civil war again. But upon this pre- 
text this Convention, with a view of completely 
counteracting the power of the people, and of 
retaining in their own hands the control of the 
whole State for an indefinite period, they adopted 
this provision in the second section of the 
schedule: 

"That all laws sow in force, shall continue 
'to be in force, until altered, amended, or repeal- 
'ed, by the Legislature assembled under the 
'provisions of this Constitution." 

And now I understand what was the object of 
this provison. It was to supersede the new Leg- 
islalure that had been elected by the people, and 
continue in force the acts of their own Legisla- 
ture, elected by the Oxford, Shawnee, Kickapoo, 
and Delaware Crossing/rauds. Now, I am sure 
that it was for this very purpose that these par- 
ties incorporated it in this Constitution ; they 
intended to perpetuate their own power, and 
repeal and set aside all laws that might be en- 
acted by the Territorial Legislature which was 
to assemble on the 4th of January. Now, gen- 
tlemen, in order to make this ill-gotten power as 
stable as possible, they provided for biennial 
sessions of the Legislature — only once in two 
years was that body to assemble — the Senators 
holding their offices for four years, and the Rep- 
resentatives for two years. Now, if they should 
succeed in carrying out their plan, and holding 
their Pro-Slavery Legislature, they are sure of 
the Senate for at least four years, before the 
people can possibly get a chance thoroughly to 
change the character of this body. But, in ad- 
dition to this, they adopted a clause which says — 
but which I shall not comment upon to-night, 
or at least at this part of my speech — provided 
no change shall be made in the Constitution until 
after 1864. The Legislature elected after 1864 



11 



may, by a vote of two-thirds, provide for an 
amendment to the Constitution. But the Legis- 
ture elected after 1861 would not be elected till 
about 18G6 ; and then it would have to submit 
the question to the people, and then the question 
would have to go before the new Legislature, 
which would meet in 1868; and then the elec- 
tion would be called some time after 1868. So 
that upon this Constitution the Senate could not 
be changed in less than four years; an amend- 
ment could not be adopted regularly, fairly, under 
the Constitution, prior to somewhere about 1870. 
But still further, gentlemen, to complete the proof 
with regard to the character of this instrument, 
the President of the Convention, Gen. John Cal- 
houn, invites the President of the Council and 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives to 
be present at his office some time about the 12th 
of January, when he proposes to open the votes 
upon the Constitution. Now, the votes for that 
were given upon the 2d of December, and the 
votes for State officers on the 4th of January. 
Well, the returns are all made. And, sir, there 
is a little story connected with that matter, that 
I wish to state to you here; the facts are all 
testified to. 

The county of Leavenworth had eight Rep- 
resentatives and some two or three Senators; it 
wa3 a controlling county in its delegation, and 
it was necessary for the Pro-Slavery party to 
have that county. Well, John Calhoun, or men 
appointed by him, established a voting precinct 
in a new place in the Delaware reserve, where 
there were very few, if any, white inhabitants; 
three judges were appointed, and 43 votes were 
given; the returns of 43 votes were placed in 
the hands of Mr. John Henderson, a mail agent, 
appointed recently by James Buchanan to a place 
of trust — a very important and responsible place. 
He carried these returns to Leavenworth City, 
and shortly it was proclaimed that the vote was 
some four or five hundred ; I don't remember the 
exact number. Now, mark you, I don't pretend 
to say that Mr. John Henderson had anything to 
do with the alteration of these returns, because 
I don't know it, therefore I cannot say it; but 
the returns were kept "in nubilous" for a certain 
time; and when Gen. Calhoun opened the returns 
from the precincts before Gov. Denver and the 
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, John Hen- 
derson had been taken prisoner, and was held 
in Lawrence upon a writ to answer to the charge 
of having committed this supposed fraud him- 
self. It was supposed that the returns had been 
sent to Calhoun; on the day of the counting, 
Henderson was in Lawrence, some 12 miles from 
Lecompton; but when the counting took place — 
so I was informed — a gentleman addressed a 
letter to Gen. Calhoun; Calhoun received that 
letter during the time the counting was going on. 
At the conclusion of the count, some one asked 
for the Delaware Crossing; Gen. Calhoun turned 
to his clerk, and asked if those returns had come 
in? The clerk said they had not. But the re- 
turns either had not been there, or they had been 
suppressed; yet very strangely, as I see by the 
newspapers, and by sworn evidence and affidavits, 
these very returns were found in the celebrated 
candle-box, buried some 40 or 50 feet from the 
office of Gen. Calhoun. Now, mark you, Gen. 



Calhoun, on the day after the counting took 
place, left Lecompton for Leavenworth, and ha's 
not been back there since; I knew, because he 
went under the escort of the United States 
dragoons; I saw the dragoons in their camp, in 
the vicinity of his office. He went away from 
Lecompton under an escort of dragoons, he has 
not been back there since to his office, and yet 
these returns were found in the candle- box in 
the neighborhood of his office with the other 
returns. Yet, when they were called for, they 
were suppressed. Now, I know no further, for I 
left a day or two .afterward, on my way to Wash- 
ington city; went fromWestportto Independence. 
In Independence I saw a gentleman, a friend of 
Gen. Calhoun's, who had been in the Convention ; 
he said that he had come from Kansas city, and 
told me that he read a letter from Mr. Calhoun, 
in which he stated that the Pro-Slavery party 
had carried the whole Legislature and all the 
State officers. 

Now, the members of the Legislature from the 
county of Leavenworth depended upon the re- 
turns from the Delaware Crossing precinct; so 
that although that return was at his office at 
Lecompton, yet when he went to Leavenworth 
he knew the number of votes upon the return; 
and upon that he gave out to his friends there 
that the Pro-Slavery party had elected their 
members for the county of Leavenworth, and 
that the whole Legislature belonged to the Pro- 
Slavery party. What do you infer from this? I 
infer, gentlemen, what I have said in my pub- 
lished letter — although I did not explain the 
facts as I explain them here to-night — that this 
whole plan was artfully laid by the leaders of 
that Convention, for the express purpose of per- 
petuating those outrageous frauds, and main- 
taining the authority of the minority in the new 
State ! [Applause.] Well, gentlemen, I think 
I am justified in coming to this conclusion, and 
that the facts sustain my position completely ; 
and I believe, if I had the facts before a jury, I 
could get a verdict to that effect [Applause.] 
I say, therefore, gentlemen, that the conclusion 
to which I came upon the adoption of this Con- 
stitution is, that it was but the logical result 
and necessary and inevitable end of the whole 
tortuous proceedings of the minority in the 
Territory, and the beginning of its history; it 
was the fulmination of its star of power, as it 
ascended to the very noon of its night of infamy. 
[Applause.] Gentlemen, it was the consumma- 
tion, the flower, the fruit, the production of all 
the wicked and dishonest proceedings of the mi- 
nority, from the beginning to the end, all com- 
bined and concentrated in this Lecompton Con- 
stitution. [Applause.] 

Gentlemen, that was my view of it, for I had 
knowledge of the whole proceedings from the 
middle of April to the ^th of November, when 
this Convention adjourned ; and then down to 
the 21st of December and the 4th of January, 
when their schemes were carried out by the 
frauds at the places I have already mentioned. 

You may well imagine that the people of the 
Territory were deeply excited ; they were stirred 
to the verj' depths of the popular heart. Their 
murmurs were loud, their outcries were boister- 
ous, their threats were strong and violent. I 



12 



could not much blame them, gentlemen, for 
almost anything that they might have been dis- 
posed to do under the circumstances. [Ap- 
plause.] They called upon me, gentlemen, in 
the absence of Governor Walker, as acting Gov- 
ernor of the Territory, to give them what relief 
I could. What was I to do? What could I do 
under the circumstances? I saw the iniquity 
that had been perpetrated before my eyes, in 
spite of my efforts, in spite of the authority and 
of the resistance of Governor Walker and myself, 
in spite of the threats and murmurs of the people. 
I saw the thing done before my eyes, in the face 
of the world ; the vilest wrong that had ever 
been perpetrated against any people.! Why, 
gentlemen, I learned, what to me was not at all 
astonishing, that in their great meetings they 
had even contemplated the destruction of Gen- 
eral John Calhoun, and every man who by the 
terms of that Constitution they regarded as par- 
ticipants in carrying it into effect. [Cries of 
''Good! Good!" and cheers.] I saw John Cal- 
houn afterwards, on the result of that state of 
feeling, under the necessity of going into the 
Territory, after his own office — the most import- 
ant, or at least the most profitable office in the 
whole Territory, the occupant of which is clothed 
with more patronage than any other officer — I 
saw him guarded by the dragoons of the United 
States, to protect him against the just indigna- 
tion of the people. 

Well, gentlemen, as I, in the simplicity of my 
heart, thought that the people were entitled to 
such relief as I could give them; I thought that 
they asked me simply to call a Legislature of 
their own election, in order to give them some 
relief; I thought it was my duty to do what they 
asked. [Applause.] I called that Legislature 
together ; and, gentlemen, if again I should hear 
the murmurs of that distracted people, if again I 
should look into t'heir glaring eyes, if again I 
should hear the despairing cries coming upon 
my ears, calling upon me for assistance — I say, 
if the President, with all his Cabinet, were stand- 
ing in my path, frowning, and threatening dis- 
credit, dismissal, death, anything, I would do it 
again. [Tremendous cheering.] 

It was for this, gentlemen, that I was dismissed 
from the little office which I held, which I had 
reluctantly accepted, with great personal sacri- 
fices and great inconvenience to myself and fam- 
ily. I had the satisfaction to meet my family a 
few days before this event took place. They had 
come to the Territory just in time to see this ex- 
ecution. Now, I called that Legislature together 
in the belief that they had the right, and the le- 
gitimate, lawful power to provide for .a fair reg- 
ulation and expression of public opinion, of the 
public will, with regard to this Constitution. I 
thought the representatives of the people had 
disregarded their obligation, and had overstep- 
ped the bounds of their authority — had violated 
the will and trampled upon the rights of the 
great majority, and that it was in the power of 
that Legislature to give the people a fair oppor- 
tunity to prove these facts to the people and to 
Congress; and I had so much simplicity, gentle- 
men, perhaps I ought to say sound ignorance, as 
to believe, that if the people had a fair election, 
authorized by the Legislature, to show beyond all 



question that they were actually in the majority 
opposed to this Constitution, that Congress 
would not dare to force it upon them in spite of 
their rejection of it. I did say it might have 
been simplicity or ignorance upon my part. But, 
after all the President has stated, after all that his 
supporters in Kansas have stated upon the sub- 
ject, still my opinion is that this expression of 
the will of the people is authoritative, and ought 
to prevail. Now, if you will pardon me, I will 
attempt to prove this, and to prove it by the 
authority of the President himself, in the very 
special message in which he calls upon Congress 
to accept this Constitution. ["Very poor author- 
ity!" I think, when we come to the conclusion, 
it is poor authority. But he lays down some 
premises which I think don't support his conclu- 
sion, but mine; and I wish to argue from his 
premises, in order to establish my conclusions, 
and to show that his are not justly deducible 
from them. Now, the President says : 

" It is proper to say of that election held under 
1 the act of the Territorial Legislature on the 
' first Monday in January on the Lecompton 
' Constitution, that this election was held after 
' the Territory had been prepared for admission 
' to the Union as a sovereign State, and when no 
' authority existed in the Territorial Legislature 
' which could possibly destroy its existence or 
' change its character." 

The Territory had been prepared, says he, for 
admission into the Union as a sovereign State, 
and there was no authority to change the char- 
acter of that State. This is the argument. I 
never claimed any authority for the Legislature 
to change the character of the State Govern- 
ment — I never claimed any authority for the 
Legislature to touch that foul thing in any way. 
[Cheers.] I never thought of recommending 
any such thing to them; but I recommended 
simply that they should express their detestation 
of it. There was no power in the Legislature 
to change this thing; but there was power in 
the people to do it. [Applause.] What did I 
do? I simply untied the hands of the people, 
so they might lawfully and in an orderly manner 
express their abhorrence of this instrument which 
was about to be put in execution. 

Now, let us see if this does no't overthrow the 
position assumed by the President of the United 
States. In this same special message — for I will 
not go back of that, (I do not agree to the fair- 
ness of that mode of argument) — I take my 
stand upon the premises he lays down, and I 
say that they do not and cannot be made to 
sustain the conclusions at which he arrives. For 
instance, he says : 

" The delegates who framed the Kansas Con- 
'stitution in no manner violated the will of their 
'constituents. The people always possess the 
'power to change their Coustitution and laws 
'according to their own pleasure." 

Now, gentlemen, does not the whole world 
know that the members of this Convention did 
knowingly and wilfully violate the wishes of the 
people of Kansas? Well, if they did, the Pres- 
ident says "they always have the power to change 
'their Constitution and laws according to their 
' own pleasure." But it would be unfair to the 
President to hold him responsible for that par- 



]3 



ticular expression, without the qualification which 
he afterward place3 upon it. He say? "the will 
' of the majority is supreme and irresistible, when 
'expressed in an orderly and lawful manner.'' 
"Expressed in an orderly and lawful manner! " 
Will, now, I claim that this expression of the 
people of Kansas on the 4th of January, audi r 
a law of the Legislature, which the President 
directed Gov. Denver to carry on peacefully, un- 
der the protection of the United States troops, 
if it were necessary to maintain order, was car- 
ried on in an orderly aod lawful manner. I do 
not pretend to say that it changed the Constitu- 
tion : I do not pretend to say that the Legislature 
could have interfered with the work of that 
Convention at nil; I would nothave had them to 
interfere or to touch it; but I contend that the 
Legislature had the power to provide for an 
election, in which the people of the Territory 
could express their opinion to Congress, and could 
declare their authoritative will against the ac- 
ceptance of this Constitution. 

It is simply and entirely distinct and separate — 
totally unconnected with the framing of the 
Constitution itself. Now, the President goes 
on — "The will of the majority is irresistible; 
'when expressed in an orderly and lawful man- 
'ner, it can make and remake a Constitution at 
'peasure. It would be absurd to say that they 
'can impose fetters upon their own power which 
'they cannot afterward remove. If they could 
'not do this, they might tie their own hands just 
'as well tor a hundred as for ten years. These 
'are the fundamental principles of American 
•freedom." Now, the President says thatalthough 
the Constitution adopted by this Convention ex- 
pressly declares that it shall not be altered until 
1864, yet the Legislature may at any time provide 
for the alteration. Now, what is the Legislature 
under the State Constitution? It is the creature 
of that Constitution. It has no powers but what 
are conferred upon it by that Constitution, and 
the Legislature can do nothing but what is au- 
thorized by the Constitution, or at least nothing 
that is expressly forbidden by it. Yet the Presi- 
dent says, that in spite of this, in spite of the 
constitutional prohibition, the Legislature may 
call a Convention. Well, as a question of law, 
I think the President is wrong about this. But 
suppose him to be right; the Legislature without 
constitutional authority can authorize the people 
to vote whether' they will have a new Constitu- 
tion or not. Now, the power to change the Con- 
stitution is precisely of the same character as 
that which is required to make a Constitution, 
for a change of Constitution is just to substitute 
one Constitution for another — it is to make a 
new constitutional Government. It requires the 
same civil power to change a Constitution that 
it requires to make a Constitution. If the Leg- 
islature, against a constitutional prohibition, can 
authorize the people themselves to exert their 
civil power by making a new Constitution, upon 
what principle can the President contend, with 
any degree of consistency, that that Legislature 
had not the power to call upon the people to 
vote whether they will have this Constitution or 
not? [Applause.] I submit it to any lawyer — if 
we may be honored with the presence of such 
here to-night — I submit the question to any in- 



telligent thinking man, whether the premises of 
the President do not necessarily imply that the 
Legislatuie which I called together had at 
least as much authority to untie the authority of 
the people, as the Legislature under the Consti- 
tution which forbids the Legislature to do it, 
when there was no act of Congress, when there 
was no constitutional principle, no legislative 
principle, in the organic act, or in any other act 
bearing upon the question, which prohibited the 
Legislature from doing what it did? To me the 
argument is unanswerable. 

But now the President, in these extracts 
which I have read, seems to entertain the idea 
that the State Government of Kansas is actually 
formed — that there is a State 1n existence, for he 
says the State is prepared for admission, and the 
Legislature had no authority to alter its charac- 
ter or destroy its existence. Now, I suppose 
that if there is a State Government in existence 
which the Legislature has no right to change or 
destroy, the Territorial Government ought to be 
superseded, and there ought to be really no Leg- 
islature in the Territory. But that is not the 
case. The President still keeps in office my suc- 
cessor, Gov. Denver, a very clever and worthy 
gentleman, who, I think by this time entertains 
upon these questions very much the same opin- 
ions as I do, although I doubt whether the gen- 
tleman would be quite as willing to express them 
with the freedom I do here to-night. But I say, 
if the premises of the President, as expressed 
in the extracts I have read, are to be admitted, 
then he ought to withdraw Gov Denver, and he 
ought to deny the authority of the Legislature 
to do anything until Congress accepts that State 
Government. According to my judgment, accord- 
ing to mj notion, there is no. authority in the 
Territory, except the Territorial Government, the 
Legislature, and the Governor of the Territory, 
as established by act of Congress And so the 
President believes, because he still retains the 
Territorial Government there, and still keeps the 
army there to protect it. So that I hold, upon 
his own premises, his conclusions are utterly fal- 
lacious, and will not stand the test of examina- 
tion for a single moment. [Applause.] Now, 
gentlemen, the Constitution of the United States 
gives power to Congress to admit new States 
into the Union. What is the meaning of that? 
Certainly it does not mean to force them into the 
Union. Undoubtedly, under this power granted 
in the Constitution cannot be claimed the author- 
ity to cr ate a Government for a State, and then 
force her into the Union. But the term " admit" 
impliis some voluntary action on the part of the 
State that is to be admitted. There is another 
clause, which makes it the duty of the United 
States to guaranty a republican form of Gov- 
ernment to every State in the Union. Now, 
gentlemen, what is the meaning of the word 
"form" in this clause of the Constitution? I 
say, that if any intelligent gentleman will look at 
it, he will perceive that it means something more 
than form, as contrasted with substance. It does 
not mean form, for substance — it means frame- 
work, organization, republican government. 
What is republican government? It is the 
government of the majority — a government based 
upon the consent of the people. When we speak 



14 



of the people, we speak of the majority. [Ap- 
plause.] Now, the President says that these 
people did not vote at the various elections, and 
that they ought to have voted. But they did 
not choose to do so. They were rebellious — 
they were ready at any time to overturn the 
authority of the Federal Government. 1 have 
extracts from the proceedings of the Legislature, 
but I will not read them now, as they would take 
up too much time. I had intended to read them, 
but I do not believe it to be necessary. What if 
this should be true ? It struck me as a very 
extraordinary fact, when I went to the Territory, 
to find the great mass of the people of the Ter- 
ritory holding off from the Government, refusing 
to have any participation in its affairs, despising 
it, denouncing all its agents and instruments as 
guilty of fraud, violence, and oppression; and I 
thought the people were not justifiable in refu- 
sing to go into these elections ; though, with the 
light I have had since, I think, if they were not 
justifiable, the facts go far to excuse them for 
not attempting to assert their rights at the ballot- 
box. But, suppose they did not choose to go to 
the ballot-box ; suppose they had no excuse 
• whatever ; suppose that, from mere whim and 
caprice, the great body of the people refuse to 
go to the ballot-box in order to establish a State 
Government — what does it mean ? Why, it 
means that the minority may go and establish a 
State Government. And, if they make it to 
suit us, very well. But if they do not make it 
to suit the people, and if they resort to all sorts 
of trickery and devices for the purpose of de- 
ceiving and defrauding the people, upon what 
principle can you say that the majority of the 
people are bound to submit to it? Simply be- 
cause they have taken no part at all, it becomes 
necessary for them to reject a fraud and wrong. 
[Applause.] Whatever may have been their 
motives, whether they have any justification or 
excuse for having refused to participaate in the 
preceding elections, this Constitution not being 
such a Constitution as they choose to adopt, they 
have a right at the last moment to come forward 
and proclaim that it is not according to their 
will, and that they will not have it. [Applause.] 
Why, gentlemen, I put this question to yoit, 
as I did the other night to the people at Piladel- 
phia, when I spoke there. Suppose that any 
State in this Union, through its Legislature, 
should call a Convention to change the Constitu- 
tion, or to adopt a Constitution for the govern- 
ment'of the State ; suppose they should, in ex- 
press terms, authorize the Convention to adopt 
a Constitution, and put it in operation without 
submitting it to a -vote of the people, as they 
sometimes do; and suppose that Convention, le- 
gally elected under this law, should go on and 
adopt a Constitution, providing it should go into 
operation on the first day of July or August 
next, or at any other time ; suppose, in the 
mean time, upon the publication of that Consti- 
tution, that the people should see in it such pro- 
visions as were not anticipated by them, and 
which were against their ideas of right, justice, 
and propriety, and they should rise up as one 
man, and call upon the Governor of the State to 
convene the Legislature, in order that they might 
be permitted to vote upon that Constitution, for 



or against it ; 016 089 339 4^ 

lature Should pass a uiw iiuiiuuiiz>iug a vutB bi 

the people, who should vote five to one against 
the Constitution, I ask you if there is any State 
in this Union that would undertake to set up 
that Constitution against the vote of the majori- 
ty of the people? [Cries of "No, no!"] That 
is precisely the case in Kansas, only the case 
which I have put is much stronger, because I 
have supposed that the Convention was cloth- 
ed with power to adopt the Constitution without 
submitting it to the people, whereas the Conven- 
tion in Kansas Was clothed with no power. The 
power not having been expressly conferred upon 
the Convention, it resulted to the people by 
every principle of law and of constitutional inter- 
pretation in our republican form of government ; 
and yet the Constitution actually rejected by the 
people, which would not be maintained for a 
single hour in any State of this Union, is to be 
maintained here. It can be only maintained, 
gentlemen, by the arms of the Federal Govern- 
ment, by the military power of this Government, 
forcing the Constitution upon the people against 
their declared will, and against every principle 
of republicanism, democracy, right, and justice. 
[Cries of "Shame-," "Shame."] If I were lhi3 
evening, gentlemen, before a Southern audience, 
before the people of my native State of Virginia, 
or my adopted State of Tennessee, or anywhere 
else in the South, I would say to them that the 
most disastrous hour of their existence would be 
that in which they should subvert all right prin- 
ciple in the accomplishment of this great wrong. 
[Applause.]. I was a member of the House of 
Representatives when the Kansas and Nebraska 
bill passed. It was alleged then that we were 
violating a sacred compromise, and, furthermore, 
that it was intended by all unfair means to extend 
Slavery into that Territory. Being then a Rep- 
resentative of the strongest slaveholding dis- 
trict in the State of Tennessee, I replied to this 
argument in a speech made on 1he 20th of May, 
1854. In that speech I used this language: 

" The population of the free States is, in 
1 round numbers, thirteen and a half million?, 
' while that of the slave. States, including all the 
' slaves, is only nine and a half millions. The 
' people of the North outnumber us by nearly fifty 
' per cent., and taking only our white population, 
' they more than double our numbers ; and in this 
' state of facts, gentlemen seriously assert and 
' argue, with the utmost manifest alarm, that our 
1 three and a half millions of slaves are about to 
' inoculate the whole of our vast territory with 
' the institution of Slavery. Sir, the baxe state- 
' ment of these facts is an answer to the whole 
' argument. It is a palpable impossibility, a 
' physical and moral impossibility in the very 
' nature of things, that three and a quarter mill- 
' ions of slaves can spread themselves over the 
1 whole country in the face of twenty millions of 
' whites. If such absorption should take place, 
' Slavery would be at that very moment ipso facto 
1 at an end. I am satisfied that Slavery will not 
' go into these Territories, and hence, I repeat, the 
' measure is of no practical importance, except for 
1 the principle of non-intervention." 

Gentlemen, such was the declaration of every 
Southern man, not that Slavery would not go 



/ 



release the m 
individual pledg 
anything but to p. 
to counteract the a. 
Constitution. They 
laws, and organize the 
order to overthrow the j± .. 
thought was about to be fastener _ ..a. 

But I said to them : " No, gentlemen, the Con- 
gress of the United States will do you jus- 
tice." 

The effect of these proceedings on the part of 
the minority, sustained by the Government of the 
United States, is to give influence and power to 
the individuals to whom the President alludes a3 
dangerous and mischievous individuals, alluding 
especially to General Lane, and perhaps to some 
few others. I say the effect of it is to throw 
power into the hands of those very men — to give 
them a hold upon the passions of the people, and 
enable them to excite them and to arouse them 
to madness. The excitements, and turmoils, and 
strifes, and bloodshed, will never cease until jus- 
tice shall have been done to the people. [Ap- 
plause.] It it impossible, gentlemen, in the 
very nature of things, that it should cease. 
Why, suppose this Constitution should be adopt- 
ed, if General Calhoun, who has the returns in 
his breeches pocket, it is said, at Washington, 
and who has never yet declared authentically 
and authoritatively what is the result of the 
elections for .Mate officers — suppose he should 
give the election to a Free State man. Then 
there will be an end of it, because the members 
of the Government elected upon that ticket have 
petitioned Congress not to accept the Constitu- 
tion. They say it. was not lawful. Although 
they have been elected by the people under it, 
yet they wish to dissolve the Government, be- 
cause it has been imposed upon them by fraud 
and violence. There will be an end of it, if he 
should give it to the Free State people, and Con- 
gress will not be under the necessity of accept- 
ing it. If, on thi: other hand, he should give it 
to a Pro-Slavery man, what will be the result? 
Why, the Legislature will not be permitted to sit 
in the Territory. ["Good! good!"] Gentle- 
men, I do not say what the people ought to do ; 
I only speak of my own knowledge of what they 
will do. ["They will do right!"] The Legisla- 
ture might assemble at Oxford, or at some other 
place, surrounded by a sufficient force of Missou- 
rians to protect them; they might go into the 
interior, sustained by the army of the United 



'but under no other circumstances can 
a within the Territory. [Applause.] 

/ut even if this Government be accepted by 
United States, the President will be under 
t Q necessity of using the army for the purpose 
of sustaining the Government which he will have 
set up in that Territory in defiance of the will of 
the people, in defiance of republican principle, of 
constitutional right. It will be a Government de 
facto, not dej'ure ; maintained by the sword in a 
republican country, which is bound to guaranty 
a republican form of government to every State 
in the Union. [Applause.] You will all agree 
with me, gentlemen, that such an exhibition as 
this would be disastrous for our country, and you 
will all unite with me in the prayer that such a 
thing may not happen during our day or that of 
our children, for I believe, that when that day shall 
come, the days of the Republic will be ended ; 
tor, as the President has very justly said, "when 
' you depart from the principles upon which the 
' Government is founded, it is a certain and sure 
c indication of the decay and final destruction of 
1 that Government." [Great applause.] 

I feel, gentlemen, that in the rather incoherent 
remarks I have made to-night, carried away by 
my feelings, that I owe you an apology for the 
length of the time during which I have detained 
you. [" No, no."] T do not come here for the 
purpose of making any complaint with regard to 
myself, or the treatment which I have received 
at the hands of the President of the United 
States. I do not come here to utter any lamen- 
tations over the loss of the little office which has 
been taken from me ; but I do come here, gen- 
tlemen, with the disposition to do ?o before my 
countrymen in the attempt to sustain the great 
fundamental principles upon which the Govern- 
ment is founded. [Cheering ] When those prin- 
ciples shall be taken from under the superstruc- 
ture, it will inevitably fall to the ground a mass 
of ruins. I have done all my conscience told me 
during the whole of my service in Kansas. I was 
bound to act, not only as one appointed by the 
President of the United States, and bound by his 
instructions, but I have done what I -felt it. ray 
duty to do as an honest man. I believe, gentle- 
men, that if Gov. Walker had been permitted to 
remain in Kansas — for he was forced to resign 
his place — I believe that if he had been permit- 
ted to carry out his policy, there would have 
been order, peace, stable government, by the 
consent of the people, at this day established in 
Kansas. [Loud and long-continued applause.] 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1858 



into the Territory, although occasiona 
have heard them say so, but that the true „ 4 
tion was non-intervention, and that a majc 
of the people were finally to settle the forn 
Government that was to be erected in the Ten 
tory. The Representatives of the South rejected 
with disdain the idea of fraud or unfairness in 
the decision made of the question as to whether 
the State to be admitted should be a free or 
slave State. I knew, or at least believed, at the 
time, with the utmost confidence, that it could 
not, from the nature of things, be a slave State. 
And I say here to-night, that, without opening 
the African slave trade, it is utterly impossible 
for the Southern States to extend the institution 
of Slavery into all the Territories which are now 
forming themselves into States within the limits 
of this Government. [Applause.] I say that 
the South ought not to insiit upon the accom- 
plishment of this wrong, because the people of 
the North may very justly go back to the occa- 
sion when the Kansas and Nebraska bill was 
passed, and say, "you have dishonored your- 
' selves by providing in that bill, against your 
' express disclaimer, for the fraudulent, forcible 
' intrusion of the slave institution into that Terri- 
tory." I do not believe that the people of the 
South, or the representatives of the people of the 
South, are justly liable to this charge, but there 
will be plausible ground for making it. And, 
again, if this Constitution should be forced upon 
Kansas by means of the frauds and "wrongs that 
have been perpetrated there, what will be the 
consequence among that violent portion of the 
community that constitutes the extreme party 
usually called the Abolitionists ? They will 
argue, with some degree of plausibility, that 
these wrongs, and outrages, and frauds, are the 
necessary consequence and only result of slave 
institutions; and thus an additional amount of 
unjust prejudice will be created in this commu- 
nity against the people of the Southern States. 
I say, that if the people of the Southern States 
understood the facts in this case, they would 
never be willing to submit themselves to this 
unjust censure. 

I would say to the Southern people, that they 
are not so strong, they are not so perfectly pro- 
tected, that they can afford to do wrong in this 
manner. The safety of their institutions rests 
upon the constitutional guarantees by which it 
is to be protected, and it rests still more certainly 
and strongly upon the good faith, and honor, and 
the sense of justice, of the Southern people. It 
is their duty and their best interest to deal fairly 
by the people of the North. And if their breth- 
ren from the North have settled the Territory in 
numbers far beyond their own, it is their duty, 
upon every principle of law, justice, and honor, 
to submit gracefully. That, gentlemen, is what 
I myself, from the beginning, as a Southern man, 
have proposed to do, because I felt it to be my 
duty to do so. I went to the Territory with in- 
structions from the President of the United States, 
warning me against the admission of frauds, or 
violence of any kind, and anticipating the occur- 
rence of these frauds, and holding me by a sol- 
emn official obligation to reject them, and put 
them down if it were in my power. But, gentle- 
men, as a Southern man, or as a Northern man, 



*ave felt myself 
as or no instruc- 
, nere, to-night, that 
compton Constitution 
,ence, a conclusion of 
-eedings of the minority 
. , 1 am but following out the in- 
stru^ .»« „;' the President, which he has de- 
serted. 

It is a remarkable fact, gentlemen, ever since 
I have been in the Territory of Kansas, when a 
man would come in from the Northern States of 
the Union — not from Massachusetts, not from 
New England, but from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
and sometimes even from Kentucky and Tennes- 
see — although they had been Democrats all their 
lives, just as good Democrats as James Buchanan 
for the last thirty years, and as good Democrats 
as you or I, or as you, Mr. President, they were 
almost inevitably driven into the ranks of the 
Free State party. It is true, that the Pro -Slavery 
party called itself the Democratic party of the 
Territory, and occasionally, toward the latter 
part of the history of the Territory, that party 
would adopt the Democratic platform, professed- 
ly national in its language ; yet, the same mis- 
trust, the same unkindness, the same intolerance, 
was still exercised toward these men; and it was 
not uncommon to hear them proclaiming in their 
Conventions that they had no confidence in any 
Northern man, that they were all Abolitionists ; 
and the consequence was, that the people were 
divided almost entirely into the Pro-Slavery and 
Free State parties. I believe to-day that four- 
fifths of the people of Kansa? are Democrats, and 
just as good ones as I am. To be sure, a ma- 
jority of them would vote for a free State. They 
don't want Slavery, but that is their business, 
and not mine. They have a right to vote it out 
of the State, if they wish to do so, upon the 
pledge of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, which 
was given to them by the whole Southern peo- 
ple, and by the Government of the United States, 
in 1854. 

Now, I communed with them. I went among 
them for the purpose of ascertaining their views, 
and I found the great mass of the people, aside 
from the noisy leaders, ready to adopt a Consti- 
tution fairly submitted to them upon its merits 
or to reject it upon its merits ; the great mass of 
the people would have voted upon it if they had 
had anything like a fair chance, would have ac- 
cepted and adopted it, and would have come into 
the Union under it. The President is mistaken 
when he represents the whole of that party as 
entertaining the views which are entertained by 
only a few. What was the result of the course 
of proceedings which was adopted ? After I had 
called the Legislature together, and they had 
remained in session eleven days, on the morning 
of the 11th the news came by telegraphic dis- 
patch, in some of the newspapers, that I had been 
removed, and a Democrat appointed in my place. 
The people there considered this a violent and 
unjustifiable interference with their proceedings, 
because they considered it an indication of a 
determination on the part of the President to 
sustain the Lecoinpton Constitution in spite of 
the will of the people to the contrary. Then it 
was that they came to me to ask that I would 



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